Will Ruggles Douglass Rankin

For us, the best pots come out of the interaction between maker, materials, and process. In the transformation from raw clay to finished pots, respecting and loving each component allows its character to participate in the outcome. This strengthens the pot with honesty, while tempering the imposition of too much “me.” We choose our materials and tools very carefully, encouraging a natural vitality that stimulates our curiosity. The clay excites the making...moving as if it is alive, and cutting with freshness from its coarse and rich nature. We make it by the slip method, mixing in a large tank and air drying it in racks. Our current clay uses about one third native materials, enlivening its commercial components with indescribable complexity. Knowing that process and tools have subtle but powerful impacts on pots, to help us get the feeling we wanted, we took cues from potters of the past. All of our methods and tools sprang originally from those that formed the pots we loved. Also, aesthetic choices made by our teachers and predecessors gave us a foundation for how we see pots. Then, over many years of applying our ever-changing personal preferences, each pot we make sets the basis for the next. The satisfying junction of human lip and cup rim, the inner fullness of a bowl, the subtle angles of cut feet that lift and ground a pot…these are ancient values established by traditional potters and with luck, carried forward by those of us who still love to make pots.